Ans: I was actually interested in Web Designing while I was doing my graduation and I thought why not learn from someone who is currently working in an IT company.
Unfortunately no magic happened and I didn't found any professional web designer until I did something different. Well I went to one of the old IT companies in my local city [Jalgaon] and met a web designer and asked him to if I can create websites for him for Free.
He didn't entertained me for the first time but when I met him the next time he said, "I can't just forward my work to you and you do it for Free, sorry" Well then I told him to just let me sit with him and see what he does and guess what he said YES! I saw him gather screenshots of different websites and then put them all in a editor online. Then I noticed that this editor is nothing but a blogger.com editor.
And I asked him about it as I couldn't control my curiosity. Well the guy told me everything he knew about blogging and how to get started with booking your own domain name and get free hosting from blogger.
I started my blog at just Rs. 119 and some paisa which I don't remember now. I got a free blogger theme and started writing articles on it.
The biggest obstacle was traffic and content creation. I learned and read a lot about content creation, blogging, generating traffic and monetizing the blog.
I also got rejected a couple of times from Adsense program because my blog was not a good fit for it.
Q. Can blogging really change someone`s life?
I've found a great way to earn online without working for a boss. I'm the only boss when it comes to blogging.
Blogging has made a lot of folks a millionaire. Blogging also helps you create your own brand online.
For example, Neil Patel create more than a couple of successful SAAS business namely Kissmetrics and CrazyEgg, with the power of blogging.
Another example is Darren Rowse, who is also known as problogger online. Darren earned a great respect in bloggin community by providing great value packed content to those who are interested in blogging and making money online.
They say content is king and I agree with it.
IFTTT is a service that enables users to connect different web applications together through simple conditional statements known as "Recipes".
Google Keyword Planner & Uber Suggest - to help me with keyword research
Buffer & Hootsuite - It automates your social media marketing efforts
GetResponse and Mailchimp - To help me in email marketing stuffs.
My typical day includes:
- Researching and reading great blogs
- Writing articles for future posts
- Calling and following up with my Web Design and SEO clients
- Allocating my website and SEO work to my team
- Lunch & Dinner ofcourse
- Reading eBooks and Books
SmashingMagazine - to stay updated with latest web design and development stuff
TutsPlus - to stay updated with latest tutorials
designtaxi.com/- to stay updated with latest design stuff
http://abduzeedo.com/ - to stay updated with latest web design stuff
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ - to stay updated with latest web design stuff
http://css-tricks.com/ - for all CSS learning
But for me blogging is the way to educate and help my clients. Blogging helps you share your ideas, tips and tricks with the world. With blogging you can become a well known person and people starts to recognize you.
I get a lot of emails which I used to send other bloggers such as
Sir, how can I make money from blogging or how to start a blog.
Well my suggestion to all such guys is focus on your readers not the money and money will eventually follow along.
Mostly I focus on SEO as it helps me get more targeted visitors than social media websites. As a SEO guy myself I understand that content promotion is as important as content creation and both of them are the two wheels of a bike.
So I spent 20% of my time researching the topic, gathering the content and blogging
- Find the niche you are passionate about
- Learn keyword research yourself
- Write content around the hot topics your readers actually wants to read
- Be the encyclopedia of your niche
- Use 70-30 percentage rule. 70 for content promotion and 30 for content creation
- Make your reader happy
- Optimize your article for SEO
